The HomePlug Alliance's and the WiFi Alliance's technologies may at first blush be different, but the two groups believe they can be quite complementary so they have entered into a liaison agreement to promote the adoption of HomePlug powerline and WiFi networking technologies for smart grid applications.
Effective immediately, the two groups will conduct joint outreach to promote the adoption of wireless and powerline technologies for smart grid applications in the home.
Although the liaison between the two groups is new, both groups are participating members in the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), a forum designed to coordinate, accelerate and harmonize smart grid standards.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) selected the Smart Energy 2 Applications Profile (SEP 2.0) as an initial interoperable standard for smart energy management with home area network (HAN) devices such as smart thermostats. WiFi Alliance and HomePlug Powerline Alliance are now working on how they can enable SEP 2.0 applications to run over both wireless and wired-based powerline networks.
For more:
- see the release
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